Pros and Cons of Whimsical Wisteria
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been attracted to wisteria. Its big, drooping blooms are breathtaking. When it wraps itself around a pergola or door frame, it seems almost magical to me. Whether you have it in your garden already, or are considering adding it to your landscape, here’s a few pros and cons of this flowering vine.
The most obvious benefit of wisteria is its amazing beauty. Few flowering vines produce such big, profuse blooms. It instantly becomes a focal point in the spring season when its at its peak.
Another pro is that the blooms attract butterflies and bees for pollinating. The flowers can be bluish-lavender, pink, mauve, or even white.
Wisteria is a vigorous grower and can reach over 30 feet in length or height. This is great if you have a large pergola to cover in a canopy. Once filled in, wisteria creates a gorgeous tunnel of eye candy.
The flowering vine is fairly easy to grow and will last for many years. It’s a hardy vine with glossy leaves and interesting seed pods that follow the blooms after spring.
Look how beautiful it is framing an old wooden door. It’s immediate curb appeal when it blooms.
Now for a few cons of this stunning vine. Because it’s a vigorous grower, it can become invasive. Some people think they’re a nuisance despite their beauty.
Another downside is that once this plant gets established, it’s extremely difficult to remove. So give careful consideration to where you plant it and realize it’s likely to remain a permanent fixture.
Probably most concerning is the vine’s toxicity. The seed pods are interesting to see, but the seeds are poisonous and shouldn’t be ingested. So if you have dogs or small children, you might want to choose a different flowering vine.
Do you think the pros outweigh the cons, or vice versa?
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My husband and I planted two Wisterias over 27 years ago, the foliage is lush and beautiful and it is a strong plant, but never, not once, not even a hint, has this vine ever bloomed! We have hope every season, but NOTHING!!! We have even tried killing it after we took the arbor it was growing on down with every chemical or “home remedy” that was suggested, but it still comes back lush and strong, but no blooms. I have a pretty good green thumb, so I am totally confounded with this plant.
Even though it has been my nemesis over the years, it’s beauty and form always leaves me in awe. Thank you for sharing these photos. Maybe I’ll show my vines the pictures and they’ll get jealous and bloom! LOL!
Enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend, Everyone. Stay safe.
As a native Floridian I can attest to a love for the smell of the blossoms, the vine I detest. When it gets somewhere It’s not welcome and it happens often, salt and vinegar does the trick.
I’ve read and been told that you really need to shock the root system early early soring before they would bloom . So dig it up and whack the roots with an axe making sure to shock the sh!t out of it than toss some bone meal and or Lyme and re bury the roots. Water etc. I have done this with a lilac bush before and it worked very well .
A plant that can grow 2 feet in a day is not for me or my yard!
They are beautiful and I would have to put a lot of thought before planting one. Have a happy Memorial Day weekend.
Omg! I planted a wisteria two years ago very close to my house not knowing all the cons. It already climbed and coverall the porch and this year already bloomed twice. I was doing a research about how to trim it and I see this article. Im glad I read this. With pain in my heart I will have to get rid of it.
Hi Victor!
Sorry to hear about your wisteria. It sure is a lovely plant and if I had a big open spot to plant it, I would. Good luck removing it. When I moved into my house 20 years ago it had a lovely (yet invasive) ivy called Winter Creeper. I pulled it all out but on occasion still see it starting to poke its head out of the ground. It’s a stubborn little bugger!
I live in North Phoenix (zone 9) and summer days are 100 degrees and up, up, up! Will Wisteria grow and bloom here? Or is the dry heat just too much for it? Are the vines and leaves attractive when not in bloom? Full sun? Or does it need some shade?